Abstract
373 thirteen-week-old chicks issued from a commercial cross and 312
chickens from the L2 line were intravenously inoculated with
106Salmonella enteritidis and the numbers of Salmonella
in the spleen, liver and genital organs were assessed 3 days
later. Heritabilities of the number of Salmonella were
estimated at
and
in the liver; at
and
in the spleen; and at
and
in the genital organs, in the first and
second experiments, respectively. The difference between the two
experiments could result from sampling variations and from differences
in the genetic structure of the two populations possibly including
both heterosis and additive effects as well as their interaction in
the first experiment. Genetic correlations between the number of
bacteria in the genital organs and liver (
and
in the first and second experiments, respectively) and spleen
(
and
) were positive. Moreover a
significant within-sire effect of VIL1, a marker gene for
NRAMP1, was observed in 117 progeny resulting from 25
informative matings.
These results indicate that there are genetic differences in the
resistance to visceral infection by S. enteritidis in these
commercial egg-laying flocks, and suggest that these differences are
at least partly due to genetic polymorphism in the NRAMP1
region.